Dark Souls
by Forsaken and Darklost
Summary: Robin is forced to be the bearer of the Banrikou, now he only has one year to live as demons and devils and other kinds of monster seek to devour his heart. A mysterious ally comes to his aid, but with origins shrouded in darkness...: Pairings: Robin/OC Semi-Rob/Rav. Rated M for extreme violence, gore, adult language and adult content.


**Disclaimer: I do not own the show Teen Titans, they are the property of DC Comics/CN. No profit is being made in the making of this story. It is purely for entertainment purposes. Only claim of right is the following OC: Ying. **

**A/N: Greetings everyone. Here's another one for you to sink your teeth into. This is another spin on a dark Titan-theme…because let's face it, there never is enough of them and never will be. So maybe this might inspire others to make the attempt, who knows, I'm just putting that thought out there. And for anyone wondering this is **_**Forsaken**_** talking, and I'm working on my own spin from Darklost's "Sabbat Rising". Let's see which one hits off more, hmm? But let's see what you guys think, so here we go! **

**xXx**

**Dark Souls**

**Chapter 1**

It felt like any other normal day for Robin. He woke up, he showered, he up on a fresh outfit and made his way out to wake up his teammates so they could beginning their morning training. Afterwards, they had breakfast, talked about their usual things, then they broke off to do their own thing for the day. One odd thing that did happen was when Robin asked his girlfriend, Starfire, if she wanted to go out and do anything later. She politely declined, stating that she promised she and Raven would be heading out to the mall in a while. He took no offense, naturally. He was glad that the two were starting to act more like close friends.

Honestly, he wasn't that disappointed as he thought. It meant he had the day to do what he wanted and he had a plan in mind should he ever get a free day. That almost changed, though, when they suddenly got a call from Speedy, asking for a little back up support for Titans East, as they were about to tangle with a new threat attacking Steel City. Robin was going to have the entire team to come aid their eastern coast team, but then Starfire suddenly volunteered to go help, and zoomed out before anyone could say anything.

Deciding that if things did get too much for them to handle, Starfire would call the rest of the team, so Robin and the other Titans went about their normal business. Taking that a good chance to continue what he originally planned, Robin went back to his room and chanced out of Robin outfit. He switched into civilian clothes: a pair of black boots, blue denim jeans, and a plain red shirt with a black hoodie over it. He un-gelled his hair, styling it so his spiked locks were swept down, and then put on a pair of black sunglasses. It wasn't often that he got out of his Robin suit and walked about as Richard Grayson. He didn't bother check with the others. He normally didn't when he got out of his Robin outfit.

Beast Boy would want to tag along, wanting to know what he was up to, and Cyborg naturally would come, wanting to join in on the fun. What neither realized at times was that it would look odd for Richard to be seen with two members of the Teen Titans. It wouldn't take people very long to realize who he really was and then his identity would be compromised. Raven wasn't a thought. She much preferred to spend time alone and as she was saved from a trip to the mall, Raven would no doubt spend her day reading her books. So with that in mind, Richard snuck down to the Vehicle Bay. Walking over to where his R-Cycle was, he went over to a control panel next to it, and pushed a button.

The R-Cycle descended down on the platform it was resting on, and then shifted to the side. Sliding in place was a more modern, conventional motorcycle, a Kawasaki series, and rose up. Once its platform locked into place, Richard hopped onto the cycle, putting on a plain black helmet with a tinted visor. He revved the machine up and tore out of the Vehicle Bay at high velocity as a tunnel opened that would lead him under the sea and into a secret exit near the harbor, keeping anyone from seeing a civilian leaving Titans Tower and guessing who it might be.

Slowing down and stopping only when he arrived at the exit of the secret tunnel, he waited until the scanners attached to the exit made sure no one was close, then opened up for Richard to ride out. He quickly zoomed off, the entrance closing quickly behind him and looking like a plain old brick wall of a building. Once he hopped onto the main road, he went straight to the mall, buzzing around everyone on the highway and easily slipping into the parking lot. Even as Richard Grayson, he loved to get his daily doses of adrenaline riding always provided. Being a superhero provided many opportunities to meet his daily adrenaline quota. As a civilian, it was risker as he had to try and stay within the law's strict rules…which was why he was so glad he wasn't just a civilian.

Hopping off his cycle, he made his way into the mall and headed for the one store he had been looking forward to visiting for a while now: Gamestop.

Strolling into the store, he smiled in greeting when he saw the store's manager working happily and hard as ever at work, Ying. She was of Asian descent, maybe Japanese if Richard had to guess. Like everyone in the store, she wore the store's T-shirt logo, but wore cargo pants and thick boots. Her black hair was done up in two ponytails, each end dyed in azure highlights. Around her neck was a ankh chained necklace. Her lips were painted black and they split into a wide smile when she spotted him walking up to the counter.

"Hey, Rick. Been a while since I've seen you in here. I was starting to think you had abandoned my store for another," Ying teased as she placed her hands on her curvy hips.

"Sorry, Ying. I've been busy with a lot of…work. I'll try to make more time to come and stop by," Richard apologized, scratching the back of his head.

Ying waved it off. "Nah, it's okay. If that last game you bought was any reason, then I know you'd probably just been too absorbed into it."

"Yeah, Skyrim is time consuming," Richard replied with a grin. "Speaking of games, I'm here to pick up those copies that I ordered over the phone."

"Oh, right!" Ying exclaimed, checking the computer for his order and then turned around and opened one of the cabinet drawers, pulling out the wanted items and then placing them down on the counter in front of Richard. "Okay, we have Final Fantasy 14: A Realm Reborn, Pokémon Y, Yveltal for the win...Any games you want coming up you want to go ahead and reserve?"

"Yeah, Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 and Titanfall," Richard said as he looked up at the ads.

"Vampire gamer, huh? Never thought you were that type," Ying teased, a hint of intrigue in her eyes.

Richard looked down bashfully and shrugged. "Always been a fan of that series, one of the few better vampire games they've managed not mess up."

"Oh god, tell me about it. Legacy of Kain was badass…but now this Nosgoth thing coming up. They better not have fagged it, or heads…will…roll," Ying said, gritting her teeth and hunching over as she raised her tiny fist up into the air.

"Hopefully they won't ruin it," Richard said.

Ying shrugged. "They could do worse…like Brink."

Both shuddered at the mention of that game.

"That was a waste of money…and time…and life I could have spent doing something else better," Ying uttered.

"Tell me about it…my friends and I were so psyched for it, too. Then the utter disappointment," Richard remarked, slouching some. "We kept thinking there would be more…but there wasn't…so much hope, lost."

"Oh my god!" Ying groaned, leaning on the counter, resting her head on her hands. "The disappointment still haunts me to this day."

Richard laughed and readjusted his sunglasses. "Hopefully, there won't be a repeat of those kinds of games. So how much do I owe?"

Ying snapped back to business and rung up the full price. He glanced at the numbers and pulled out his credit card and handed it to her. As Ying took it to check that it matched his account she had in their system, she gave it back and told him to swipe it. After he did, she started bagging his two purchases. "I really like it when you come in here. You never flinch or stare at the prices after the total is brought up. Must be nice being rich like that."

"What makes you think I'm rich?" Richard asked.

"Seriously? Richard Grayson, the adopted son of Gotham's Prince, Bruce Wayne. How would one not know you?" Ying retorted.

Richard held up his hands in defeat. "Fair enough."

"Since we're on the subject, why is a rich kid like you living here in Jump City and not with Bruce Wayne back in Gotham?" Ying asked, genuinely curious, leaning her elbows on the counter and putting her chin in her hands.

"…Things were getting kinda out of hand. What with the sporadic rate crime has been increasing in Gotham. Bruce thought it would be dangerous for me to be in the city…so here I am," Richard said with a straight expression. That was the official cover story he and Bruce worked out after he decided to go solo and headed to Jump City. He took his bag and waved at Ying, thinking now was a good time to make a hasty exit before she tried drilling him for more answers. "I'll see ya when my pre-orders are in! Later, Ying!"

She waved idly back but he was already out the door. "Hmm, that guy is always on the move…" she murmured to herself and then was about to get back to work, when she suddenly paused and her eyes widened a fraction when she caught a shadow moving. It flickered over the glass and darted in the direction Richard had gone. "No…what is he doing here?!"

She ran to the back of the store where one of her fellow co-workers was busy organizing and shouted at him. "I'm taking my break early! Get up front and mind the counter."

"But I'm not done…" the employee started to argue, but Ying had bolted away, leaving the door swinging behind her. "Well, that was rude..." he uttered to himself.

_**xXx**_

Richard headed for the food court. He had just remembered he hadn't really eaten anything after he made his quick getaway from Ying and felt his empty stomach starting to rumble. It might have been early, too, but some supreme tacos sounded really good to him. So he headed for the Taco Bell booth and got halfway there when he heard a familiar giggle.

"What?…That sounded like," Richard uttered to himself quietly as he turned to the direction he heard the giggle.

He silently walked over to a wall that blocked the sitting area from the food booths and slunk alongside it until he could peek around the corner. What he saw nearly made his sunglasses fall off his face. There, four tables away from here he hiding, sitting together and locking lips and tongues down each other's throat…was Starfire and Speedy.

"The hell?" Richard gasped, blinking rapidly, thinking what he was seeing was an illusion. But much to his regret, the visual scene before him didn't change.

Starfire had her arms wrapped around Speedy, one hand running through his hair, petting him lovingly. Speedy had her yanked as close as he could in their seated position, rubbing her bare midriff and curvy hip and just barely cupping her ass. It was then when Richard saw Speedy's fingers hook down under the skirt to rub her bare thighs was when it finally clicked on him: this was really happening. Speedy didn't linger there very long, just enough to get a feel, and then withdrew his hand back to her hips and broke the kiss.

"Man, I didn't think I'd be able to sneak out of Steel City with the way Bumblebee's been drilling us with team training and double patrols," Speedy said, smiling dreamily at her.

"If we had not figured out to call each of our teams and warn of needing help in our respective cities, then yes, it would have been impossible," Starfire added, hugging him closely.

Richard rolled back behind the wall and gawked at nothing. _They've been planning this? H-How long?!_ This was unbelievable. Starfire was cheating on him…with Speedy! One of his closest friends and fellow youths that went through the same stigma of being a sidekick was going behind his back and stealing his girlfriend! _I don't believe this…I can't. How long have they been doing this, when did it start?_

He didn't want to hear anymore. His heart was pounding like mad and his eyes were starting to sting as tears started to pool in them. He started to grind his teeth together as waves of rage and sorrow spun wildly in his heart. His first impulse was to rip away from the wall and storm right up to them and reveal they've been caught. Were in his Robin suit, he would have done just that, but he wasn't Robin now. He was just normal, average Richard Grayson and it would look funny if a normal guy walked right up to two members of the Teen Titans and declare their unfaithfulness in broad day light.

Snarling silently, Richard forgot about his hunger and stalked off quietly away from the food court. He quickly left the mall and got his motorcycle and drove out at neck breaking speed. Going over the speed limit was not on his mind as he buzzed around everyone on the road and pushed his cycle to go faster. He wanted to get away from what he had just witnessed as fast as he could. The world blurred around him and a part of him knew he was going at too dangerous a speed, but he didn't care. He wanted the world to disappear, along with everything that pained him.

If he was being chased by cops after passing a speed trap, he wasn't aware. He was going too fast and driving in such a random direction, even if a squad tried to go after him, they'd never catch him. And if it got too serious, like helicopters appearing, it was an easy matter to lose them. Nothing mattered anymore, anyway. At the rate he was going, he'd probably soon forget all his troubles after crashing into a building or wrapping himself around a phone-pole. Some forethought of caution finally got a hold of him, and he started to decelerate.

When he slowed down, he found himself on the bridge. Pulling over to the side to allow normal traffic to continue to go by, Richard got off his cycle and strolled over to the edge, where he found himself overlooking Titans Tower. He sighed heavily and ran his hands through his hair, scratching at his scalp, frustrated.

"How am I going to deal with this?" Richard said in grief.

The whole reason the Teen Titans worked so well as a team was because of trust. If he let out what Starfire and Speedy were doing, what would that do to the team? They had all become so close as friends, with Starfire, he thought more so…but after what he saw and overheard? What was he to think now? Too many questions plagued him at once and he had no answer to any one of them.

"What am I going to do? Why is she cheating on me?!" Richard screamed out into the sea.

"Thinking about jumping, are we?" a voice suddenly spoke.

Richard looked around and then down at here he was, and gasped. He had no idea when his foot moved, but it had placed itself halfway off the bridge. Seeing this, he jerked back away from the ledge and stared in bewilderment. "When did I…?"

"It's easy to understand. You are suffering from a massive amount of grief and sorrow…You must really hate being alive right now, don't you?" the voice spoke again, feeling Robin's head.

"Who is talking?" Richard demanded.

A white gloved hand clamped down on his shoulder and gently turned him around. This action caused Richard to come face to face with a man in a large white-brimmed hat and long sickly yellow hair flowing down around his face and back. "You seem lost, young one. You really don't want to live anymore, do you?"

His eyes quivered with a kind of energy and Richard could not pull away from his gaze. It was too hypnotic for him. "…Do I?"

"Yes…You want to die, the grief of your love betraying you with another guy. It's swallowing up with agony, so much that you don't want to continue living like this, hmm?" the strange man in the hat said suggestively.

"…I…don't…want to live with so much…pain," Richard answered back, his will giving in to the man's influence.

The man smiled and reached into the white, heavy trenchcoat he was wearing and pulled out a black-bluish vial. "That's excellent…but I cannot allow you to waste your life so fruitlessly, no. I need you for a very delicate task. I went too much out of way to pick someone who would survive long enough for what I was assigned to do." He grabbed Richard by the neck and forced his jaw to open. "Now, normally, someone of my position is supposed to offer you a deal to compensate you for your willingness to accept and drink the 'Banrikou'. But these aren't normal times, and I'm short on time. So since you won't be a willing resource, no point in making the deal. Honestly, it's a waste of time when after all is said and done you won't get to reap your reward. Bah, the rules are so annoying… Now drink up and let's be done with this."

Richard hung limply in the man's hand, feeling his jaw open up wide and the stranger poured the contents into his mouth, massaging his throat just enough to make him swallow and keep him from choking the precious elixir back up. After that was done, he dropped Richard like a sack of potatoes and chuckled over the gasping hero. "See? It's so simple to just make you drink the Banrikou elixir and not deal with the fuss."

The man stroked the side of his chin and grinned. "Hmm, if only it took you to just drink it and wait so long to ripen…how easy it would be to kill you now and collect the spoils all for myself…"

_**"Get away from him!"**_ A demonic-raged voice thundered.

"What, who?" the man uttered in surprise and leapt away just in time to avoid being reduced to shredded remains by dark ripples of energy. Looking up, he saw a girl in a black leotard and blue cloak hovering over him, eyes blazing crimson red…two sets of red eyes. "I didn't expect you to show up this soon…but no matter, my business is concluded, you can have him. At least, for one more year." The man then vanished into dust, a cruel chuckle echoing into the air.

Raven quickly landed down beside Richard, pulling him into her arms. "I felt your…pain. I had no idea what was going on, but I'm glad I decided to come look for you," she said lightly, then looked closely as a bit of bluish liquid leaked down the corner of Robin's mouth. "What did he do to you?"

Richard could not answer as his throat felt like it was on fire and he started to feel himself losing consciousness. Whatever it was that he was forced to drink, it was forcing him to go under. He wasn't able to resist it and in moments succumbed to darkness. He never even got to hear Raven cry out his name…his real name.

As this happened, up on top of the bridge where the man disappeared up to get away from the Titan girl, he watched the scene, amused. "Heh, this went better than I could have hoped. Oh well, this next year should be rather entertaining watch and witness history in the making." He started to laugh but then was shocked when he instead started choking up blood. "Wha…?" His eyes gazed down and found a black katana blade poking out of his chest when he remembered clearly there wasn't one there before. "Who…?"

"I thought I warned you to never appear in this city, Middleman," a young, feminine voice said, yet it was weigh with more knowledge and experience than should be allowed for such a young voice.

"Y-You?" the proclaimed Middleman uttered, looking over his shoulder…at Ying. "I…thought I hid my presence pretty well. I guess I didn't do a good enough job, huh?"

"Your arrogance to think you could hide from my senses was your downfall. You should have remembered just who you were trying to sneak around," Ying said with a deadly calmness and seemed to chill the air. "Now tell me…what have you done?"

Middleman, even impaled by her sword, chuckled and pointed down at the two Titans. "Why, I did what I was ordered to do, my dear. My service was called for when desperation finally forced action to be taken. What did you think would happen after you fled from your rightful duty? You think you could just hide and pretend to live among humans like you were one of….GRAH!"

He was cut off literally…when Ying jerked her wrist upward and the razor sharp edge of her sword sliced cleanly through Middleman's upper torso and head. Her wrist didn't stop moving after that one action, it started flickering in rapid session in front of her, moving with a speed impossible for the human eye to follow. When her wrist stopped moving, Middleman's remains were nothing more than micro bits, which burst into dust, blowing harmlessly away by the wind.

"Middleman…you damn fool. You knew I was going to kill you if you ever made your presence known to me. If they sent you here, then it can only mean…" Ying looked down and her eyes narrowed in sorrow at Richard who was being picked up and carried off the bridge by Raven as she took him to the tower on the small, lonely island. "This shouldn't have happened…how was I unable to detect him sooner?"

A faint idea popped in her head and she snarled, hints of fangs descending down from her canines as they stretched could be seen. They instantly retracted as she regained control of her anger. "…So they've finally decided to do something. After all this time, I almost believed they'd never take action. That will be the last time I let myself foolishly dream idly in anything...especially when _they _are concerned."

She watched Raven fly to the top of the tower, easily able to keep her in sight as her eyes were not like those of a normal human, much as her appearance might contradict. "Those Titans have no idea of the nightmare that is about to befall them…" She tightened her grip for a moment, then sheathed her katana back in a black scabbard. "Seems I'll need to remind those idiots who they shouldn't anger."

_**xXx**_


End file.
